A blog about the complex interplay between cultural and biological influences on behavior (as well as any interesting news or tidbits).

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Thursday, March 5, 2009

Robot love

A baby monkey in the U.K. gets a stuffed surrogate mom with a mechanical heart while her mom recovers from a c-section, so the little DeBrazza baby can lie against the toy and be comforted by her "mom's" heartbeat. Awwww.....

Teams in Italy and the U.K. are currently developing a robot kid. This robot has been programmed to learn how to crawl, walk, an move, using the leading theories today of child development. The best part, the schematics on how to make the kid are open access, meaning ANYONE who has serious robotics training could potentially make and teach this robot kid. They hope this will speed the development of the robot, including developing nerves and sensing skin for the kiddo. My favorite part in the film clip (see link), is when the robot gets "falls asleep."

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About This Blog

I am constantly fascinated by the complex interplay of biological and cultural influences that make up human nature. Both are elements are crucial to what makes us human, and studying each of these is a valid way of studying human behavior. One of my mission's in life is to advocate the total abandonment of cultural or biological determinism. Humans are too complicated to determined by any one thing.

I am a science writer with an MA in Anthropology. I am currently living in Seattle, but am always yearning to get back to the woods.